Introduction

Nobody gets married in hopes that they can have a boring and unfulfilling marriage. Yet sadly, that's where many couples find themselves. This session is the introduction to the course and lays the groundwork that we will be covering over the next 7 sessions. It also introduces you to some of the practices that we hope you and your spouse will jump into as you grow in your relationship with Jesus and each other. This course is built on the bedrock truths of the Bible and the most current research into marital fulfillment and happiness.

Passion with God

When you think of passion, you probably think of new love, a passionate scene in a movie, or the passion you had together at the beginning of your relationship. You probably don’t think about God. But God has created us to experience his passionate love for us and display that love back to him. Zephaniah 3:17 paints a picture of God’s passion for you. Can you imagine God strumming a guitar as he belts out a ballad with you as his muse? Passion is essential to marriage, so let's take a look at the author of passion and how you can experience, receive, and return it. Next week, we will jump into what it looks like to take that passion and display it to your spouse as well.

Passion with Spouse

God had created passion to bring a unique excitement to your relationship with your spouse, it is a good gift from a great God. Passion is not just for the early days of dating but fuel for the life of your marriage. This session will jump into what passion is, what it’s not, and how you together can grow in passion for one another.

Commitment with God

God is the king of commitment, and he is completely committed to you. He has been from the beginning of time. It is never his commitment that is in question. It is ours. This session will dive into God’s commitment to you but will also reveal that this commitment is not intended to be one-sided. Our commitment to God creates an opportunity for safety, community, and closeness.

Commitment with Spouse

Commitment is more than just not leaving. Commitment is a choice you get to make each day to make your spouse and your marriage a priority and to remember it’s important to you and you are important to each other. This session will cover the true meaning of love, how to live it out, and how to choose each other day in and day out. At a basic level, commitment might be the staying power in your relationship, but don’t settle for basic; push into the strength and safety of choosing each other over and over again.

Intimacy with God

Intimacy is not just sex. Many of your intimate relationships will never (and should never) lead to sex. Intimacy is the closeness of sharing your hopes and dreams, fears and failures. Intimacy is being known and knowing someone in return. God has a desire for you to know him intimately, and he wants to know you the same. This session explores our invitation to step into an intimate relationship with God, to not just know about Him but to be known and know him in a deep and personal way.

Intimacy with Spouse

The strongest marriages are not based on a partnership, kids, or even sex. The strongest marriages are rooted in friendship, with partnership, family, and sex as icing on the cake. This session is going to ask you to explore your friendship with your spouse. Along the way, we hope you pick up tools and insights to develop and deepen your friendship. So gear up, and invite your spouse into your world, or step into theirs.

Wrap Up

You made it! This is the last session of Marriage Essentials. In this session, we are putting it all together. How do Passion, Commitment, and Intimacy (PCI) with God and my spouse all mix together? Well, really, it’s simple. If you develop PCI with God, then it will naturally overflow into your marriage. But if you try to develop it in your marriage without developing it with God, then you will be missing out on the true source of it all. As we wrap this course up together, let’s spend some time together talking about your story, where it started, where it’s at, and, most importantly, where it is going. Together, you, your spouse, and God get to write an epic story, so don't settle for a boring read.